There are about 16,000 people in Carlow. It's a good-sized, prosperous town which has incongruously been at the centre of Leinster club football for the past decade. The only population centre which can challenge Carlow's record of achievement is the metropolis of Dublin with its huge super-clubs.

Tomorrow's AIB Leinster championship denouement brings together clubs from Carlow and Dublin for the fourth final in the past eight years. The Dublin champions have yet to win one. This year is different.

Whereas the Carlow challenge has been previously the exclusive preserve of the Eire Og club, this year their neighbours, O'Hanrahan's, have emerged.

There are contrasts between the clubs. Eire Og is a younger club and has been until recently noticeably more progressive. Regarded within the county as being quicker on the draw in publicity terms and - with Tinryland - the magnet for footballing newcomers to the town.

O'Hanrahan's were the old, traditional club, who hit hard times and for decades failed to live up to its heritage of faded achievement.

Like Eire Og, their arrival on the wider stage has been unexpected. The perception has been that a county like Carlow, never mind its main town, is unlikely to produce more than one outstanding club in a generation.

Whereas O'Hanrahan's have a long road to travel before winning five provincial titles and reaching two All-Ireland finals, there is a feeling that the journey is beginning.

Traditionally, that's the time to strike. In the end, Eire Og were prime examples of the theory governing the club championship: The best chances are the first.

Losing experience hardly ever proves an asset and sure enough Eire Og were never closer to an All-Ireland than in 1993, their first year out of Leinster.

Here the stories of O'Hanrahan's and tomorrow's opponents Na Fianna merge. It is the Dublin team who are carrying the losing baggage. Out-played by the admittedly exceptional Crossmaglen Rangers in last March's All-Ireland final, the Dubliners are favourites to qualify for another crack at the pot next spring.

Yet history favours the newer teams, the ones with fresh momentum in a championship where attempted retention of provincial titles frequently exhausts sides.

So the theory will be tested again tomorrow. But who are O'Hanrahan's and where in football terms have they come from?

The club's history is actually lengthier than Eire Og's. They were founded in 1919, whereas their local rivals didn't set up until 1956 when they broke away in response to the expanding demographics of the town.

"The one club wasn't enough at the time," according to O'Hanrahan's chairman Peadar Bermingham. "People couldn't get matches so a new club was founded,"

The eponymous O'Hanrahan was Michael, a 1916 activist who was executed after the failure of the rising. A Dubliner and founder member of the Leinster Council, he lived in Carlow town for a number of years before his death.

He is also commemorated by the New Ross club, Geraldine O'Hanrahan's in Wexford.

Many club members became involved in the War of Independence.

According to Carlow PRO, Tom Murphy: "O'Hanrahan's were very nationalist back in those days. A lot of their lads could only come in over the ditch for matches, so many of them were on the run."

Beyond the ditch, the Carlow champions have only recently stirred to life. Although cause and effect isn't established, they fell into a decline shortly after the establishment of Eire Og. Prior to last year, the club hadn't won a county title since 1961 and was graded intermediate as recently as 1989.

The last decade has seen a revival everywhere. Attention to under-age structures yielded the current team with its record of county success stretching back to under-12 level.

It's only two years since the dressingroom and clubhouse complex was completed and two years since Michael Dempsey was appointed manager.

An intelligent and articulate football coach, Dempsey came to the club while still recovering from the consistently chastening experience of managing the Laois county team. (Co-incidentally, Bobby Miller, who masterminded the Eire Og breakthrough, had exactly the same item on his cv.)

Disillusioned by the experience, Dempsey admits that, although he was missing the coaching, he hadn't wanted a high-profile position. O'Hanrahan's certainly seemed to satisfy that requirement.

"Just after I was appointed," he recalls, "I went to see them play Eire Og and they were beaten by 16 or 17 points. You could see they had skill, but they looked way off the mark. I don't think anyone gets involved with players just to win trophies. You get involved to get the best out of the players.

"They had a lot of skill. A typical town team, they were good at expressing themselves and were a young side. The challenge was to achieve a unity and discipline."

By March of last year, Dempsey's team was beating Eire Og and went on to repeat the dose in the last two county finals, regarded by locals as exceptionally good matches - particularly last year's.

According to Bermingham, the discipline imposed by Dempsey has been an internal one.

"Michael has been pivotal to our success. We knew we had the footballers, but we always had club members or former players as manager and I think you miss the perspective of someone coming in and taking everything by the scruff of the neck.

"The question of discipline has been over-played. To listen to some of the talk, you'd think the fellas were completely wild on the field. What Michael has brought is the discipline of commitment and training.

"There used to be a lot of fellas playing soccer and not giving their full commitment to the club. Mick Dempsey has changed all that."

Dempsey says that, like so many memorable campaigns, this season's progress has its roots in defeat. A year ago, after winning the club's first county title in 38 years, O'Hanrahan's lost out to Sarsfields in Newbridge by only a point. The Kildare club went on to reach the provincial final.

"They so nearly won it," says Dempsey. "It was naturally a hard thing for them to get their heads around the Leinster championship after the excitement of beating Eire Og (then Leinster champions) in the county final. But they got up for it and went so close, hitting the upright and the crossbar and losing by only a point.

"A fortnight later we had a meeting and looked at a video of the Sarsfields match. We made the decision there and then to have a proper crack at the Leinster championship.

"There was a real determination there and this was last year when we would still have had to retain our county title to earn another chance. But the players are young, idealistic and ambitious."

Tomorrow, that ambition comes into focus. For every Eire Og sweeping to national prominence in the space of a year, there is a club like Roundwood from Wicklow who pushed Eire Og to a replay in the wonderful 1995 Leinster final. Despite such a narrow defeat, they never re-emerged.

"We are a young team, enjoying what we do," says Dempsey, "but we're conscious of the past and that we may never have this opportunity again".

"Michael Dempsey has been pivotal to our success. We needed the perspective of someone coming in and taking everything by the scruff of the neck."

- O'Hanrahan's chairman Peadar Bermingham